


When the Woodpecker Stops

by LilyRosetheDreamer



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hanzo and Bastion are friends, I keep making things sad, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 23:17:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8264081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyRosetheDreamer/pseuds/LilyRosetheDreamer
Summary: Somewhere in the trees, a woodpecker stops pecking. The silence is all too oppressive.





	

**Author's Note:**

> You all know how I made Bastion be friends with Hanzo, right? Well um…whoops? Not part of the Journey series.

MIssions are never simple. There’s always a possibility, an outside influence that nobody takes into account until it slams into your face with all the subtle force of a freight train. 

Hanzo should know better than to ever think he’s prepared for anything. 

The building is coming down and he’s toppling with it, bombs splintering apart the structure. 

“Hanzo!”

He reaches out, dark eyes filling with shock at the sudden loss of ground under his feet and sees Genji fighting to get to him, reaching back with another cry of fear. He clings to his bow for dear life and hears the roar of wind popping his eardrums as he tumbles blindly to the bottom, losing sight of his frantic brother. Something cracks in his chest and side as he lands savagely and he shudders in pain. Just before rubble cracks into his skull and robs him of consciousness, he registers a shadow falling over him.

* * *

 

The quiet is eerie.

It’s a suffocation of his lungs and a small smile before the mission started and Genji’s frightened.

“Hanzo?”

He calls anyway, even as his stomach (what’s left of it) churns and threatens to make him retch. Hands are scrabbling at rock and concrete and it takes a moment for him to realise that they are his hands. 

Someone’s touching his shoulder. 

“Hang on, let me help,”

Zarya. She’s strong - she should have this in hand in no time. There’s still a chance. 

The two work as quickly as possible, pulling and pushing rubble aside at speeds most wouldn’t even consider. Pharah turns up halfway and joins the rescue effort, Zenyatta gifting them with his Orbs of Harmony to refresh sore muscles. 

Genji doesn’t need those - not when his are synthetic. 

There’s an opening, shadowed in dust and azure light, and he starts forward, regardless of possible danger. Zenyatta’s forming a warning when Genji’s breath catches in his chest. 

“Bastion,”

Bastion’s contorted in an unusual position, crouched protectively over something in the darkness. Metal groans under the stress of the weight and Genji creeps a little closer, his heart quickening at the sight.

“Hanzo! Oh God…”

His brother lies huddled in a half moon, his temple trickling blood and his bow still grasped in a loose hand. He’s sheltered under Bastion and Genji realises with a jolt that Bastion threw everything he had into protecting his older brother at the last moment. 

Hanzo’s his friend - Bastion protects friends. Genji couldn’t be more grateful. 

Something yellow and dirty catches his eye for a second and he feels a small burst of sympathetic grief.

“Oh Bastion, I’m sorry,” he says in a hushed tone, gazing upon Ganymede’s broken body. 

Bastion beeps sadly, the tone distorted by slight static. He hadn’t been able to protect her and Hanzo - the choice must have been hard.

He’s probably going to need extensive repairs, Genji thinks dimly, already moving forward as carefully as possible. The situation is highly precarious at best - one wrong move and the whole structure is going to crumble down and kill all three of them. 

“Alright, Bastion,” Genji continues, working to keep himself calm. “I need to take Hanzo first, okay? Then we’ll come straight back to you, promise,”

Bastion beeps again, urgent in tone, sparks fizzing out of his plating. He can’t move at all due to being the only barrier between the whole building and Hanzo. Right now, he’s literally saving their lives. Genji understands the message, however.

“Yes, yes, I’m coming,” he babbles slightly, inching forward and stretching out his hands for Hanzo. The cyborg freezes momentarily as a cloud of dust falls in a heap in front of his face and Bastion makes a horrible grating noise but holds firm, refusing to give in. Sweat trickles down Genji’s scarred skin and he breathes out shakily as he moves again, keeping up a string of nonsense to reassure himself and Bastion. 

“Okay, it’s alright. We’re going to get him out and then you, that’s r-right, that’s how it’s going to go! Bastion, thank you so much, I don’t know how to thank you for this - Hanzo would be gone if not for you,”

Bastion squeals in what sounds like kind delight and Genji’s confused as to why there are tears in his eyes. 

His hands wrap around Hanzo as gently as possible and even in his unconscious state, Hanzo moans in agony. 

“Shh, shh, I’m sorry, _anija, gomen_ ,” Genji soothes quickly and as soon as he feels he’s got his older brother securely in his arms, he starts to slowly back out the way he came. Bastion flurries out a series of beeps and Genji answers back. 

“Yes, I’ve got him! We’re going out!”

The sudden emergence into daylight would have most people blinking rapidly but Genji’s visor is well-equipped for the change. Zenyatta’s hands are already placing Orbs of Harmony around Hanzo’s bleeding body (whoa, there’s a lot more blood than Genji previously thought) and Genji turns around, shoulders square. 

“Genji!” Pharah cries out but he won’t listen - Bastion needs him. 

He won’t let him down, he **won’t.**

The building creaks ominously and Genji’s stretching out an arm to the flickering blue light. 

“Bastion, don’t let go, I’m coming back -!”

Something sighs out a long stream of tired, happy static. 

Bastion lets go.

Genji’s screaming but it’s all too fast, too violent and the sound of metal being crushed sears through his ears. 

He can’t remember Pharah moving but she’s wrapped her arms around him and he’s struggling, yelling, ANYTHING. They can still get to him, they can put him back together, god fucking _DAMMMIT-!_

“Genji,”

Pharah’s voice cracks and Genji’s body slumps as though she’d slapped him.

Bastion’s dead.

He’s gone, a twisted sacrifice now dormant. For a moment, all he can do is stare numbly as Fareeha chokes on tears.

“…Genji?”

Hanzo’s weak, confused voice has his little brother whipping round to examine him, his mind stuttering over the thanks and praises Bastion should be receiving face to face. 

Bastion saved Hanzo’s life. 

His beloved brother.

Genji wraps his arms round to cradle Hanzo close and the other pants against the pain. Pharah stands mutely and Zarya has a strange expression on her face.

“What happened?”

Nobody replies - they can’t put what just happened into words. Hanzo’s glazed brown eyes flit across each face and his brow furrows. 

“What?”

“Brother -,”

“I do not understand,” he murmurs, his cheek pressed against Genji’s chest and his eyes fluttering in an attempt to stay awake.

“Bastion is gone,”

Zarya’s voice is a harsh mix of triumph and shock and Genji’s blood boils for the first time in a long while. She WOULD be happy. 

She doesn’t understand and likely never will. 

Pharah takes off into the sky, sensing that checking the area and directing her mother and Mercy towards the scene will be more helpful than standing guard. Hanzo gasps and he looks down, ready to comfort immediately, when Zarya relentlessly pushes forward with her next sentence. 

“It must have had a back-up program - or it just reacted to save itself. Lucky it was in that position in the first place, otherwise you might have been riddled with bullet holes,”

Hanzo has no response and Genji’s grits what remains of his jaw as he sees tears slide down his brother’s bloody cheeks. Bastion was Hanzo’s dearest friend - how dare she.

“It was for the best,” Zarya finishes awkwardly, a blundering attempt at comfort. 

Hanzo’s shaking and Genji along with him. 

“No. No, it was not,” 

Zenyatta has a hand on his arm, ready to restrain. 

“Bastion saved Hanzo’s life - is that any way to speak of the dead?”

Zarya raises an eyebrow as she stands up straight, checking the landscape around them with a frown. 

“I did not trust it,” she shrugs. “But it managed to do something correctly in its final moments of function, I suppose,”

Zarya manages a lopsided smile down at Hanzo, who has buried his face into Genji’s neck. He’s too weak and wrought for this bullshit, Genji thinks wildly. Hanzo is vulnerable and exposed and he knows Hanzo would most likely have an internal panic attack if he had the strength. 

“I’m just glad your brother is alright,”

“He is _not_ alright, **Zarya** ,” Genji spits. “Hanzo nearly died and has just lost one of the first friends he has ever made. Shut your mouth,”

Zenyatta hums out a warning, but Genji is too angry to care. Who the hell does she think she is? How can she so happily assume how Hanzo is to feel? How they’re both feeling?!

Zarya’s frown deepens, her confusion and annoyance clear. 

“It was only an omnic!”

“What next, Zarya?!” Genji raises his voice, Hanzo’s grip barely making any impact on his arm. The hand trying to tug at him slides limply down to the dirt. Zenyatta’s calling Mercy again on the comm link.

“What’s the next step? When will you open your eyes?! Omnics are no more faceless weapons than we are! How can you claim that we’re better when we’re more two-faced than they could ever hope to be?”

Zarya’s about to argue when Hanzo’s broken whisper cuts through the tension. 

“Please…not now,”

Genji deflates. He can’t mess around trying to hammer sense into her fucking brain, no matter how much he wants to.  

“Alright,” he concedes grudgingly, watching Hanzo’s head loll forward as he slips into unconsciousness again. “Enough,”

Grieving must come later.

* * *

 

Footsteps patter through Eichenwalde, a place torn to pieces by the Omnic Crisis and the birth place of their Bastion. The air is still but peaceful and birds weave their song through the branches of greenery. A silver cyborg steps into the grassland outside of the town and looks behind at his silent companion, who cradles an ebony box close to his chest.

There are new scars on Hanzo’s skin and heart and Genji can’t do much about either of those. 

Genji too carries a larger box, a plain wooden thing with the letter B carved into the lid in an elegant swirl. 

“I think the forest should be nice,” he speaks up, letting Hanzo fall into step beside him. 

Hanzo makes a vague noise of agreement, distracted by his fingers stroking the top of the glossy ebony. Dull oak eyes lift up to meet Genji’s gaze and he offers a wan smile. 

“I am alright,”

He isn’t. He hasn’t slept - Genji can see the brush of bruised marks under Hanzo’s eyes and he knows full well how much punishment his brother is placing upon himself.

Genji can’t discuss it now, not when they’re to return Bastion home. 

The Shimada brothers reach a clearing, disturbing a crowd of butterflies as they end the journey. The sun filters through the leaves and a brook bubbles. 

It’s perfect.

One by one, each box is carefully opened and Genji kneels with Bastion’s metal hand in his grasp. Hanzo gently holds Ganymede’s little body and tries to hold back bitter tears as he kneels alongside. 

A hand and a bird. 

That is all that remains of the curious, sweet Omnic who once watched Reinhardt garden and fed the birds with Hanzo.

Hanzo bites his lip as Genji begins to dig into the loamy earth with his hands. He places the hand into the shallow grave and then leans back, tilting his head in confirmation. Hanzo hesitates, stroking Ganymede’s feathers. 

Then she is placed delicately on an open palm. 

Hanzo covers them up and then they both clasp their hands together, completely silent for a long time. 

“Thank you, Bastion,” Genji says eventually, his voice shaky and clear. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving Hanzo’s life. He is my only family and I would be lost without him. You will never be forgotten,”

Grief tinges Genji’s every word and Hanzo opens his mouth to speak around a closed throat.

“I…”

He swallows hard and tries again, stuttering over loose syllables.

He can’t.

He can’t say goodbye. 

Hanzo’s voice is thick and tiny with his own mourning when he finally gets out a sentence, tears dripping into the grass.

“I am _sorry_ ,”

Hanzo hunches in on himself and Genji tugs him in for a well-needed hug. Somewhere in the trees, a woodpecker stops.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry! I love Bastion just as much, I swear.


End file.
